THE High Court was told yesterday that the veteran rock star Jerry Lee Lewis was not well enough to travel to Dublin to give evidence tomorrow in a case in which he is being sued for damages.
The hearing was adjourned to April 18th. Mr Denis McDonald counsel for a German company suing Mr Lewis, told Mr Justice Morris his client took a "somewhat jaundiced attitude" to this third application on behalf of Mr Lewis for an adjournment of the proceedings.
Mr McDonald said his client had accessed an Internet site which displayed a concert itinerary for Mr Lewis and showed he is due to give a concert in Jacksonville, Florida, next Friday, the day after he was scheduled to appear in court in Dublin.
Mr McDonald said his client took a jaundiced view of the medical evidence produced on behalf of Mr Lewis because he was stated to have been unable to travel to Ireland in February, but they had evidence that he had performed two concerts in Denmark during March.
Mr Lewis is being sued by a German company, Neue Constant in Film Production GmbH, which claims the performer failed to fulfil an engagement in Munich on January 14th, 1993. Mr Lewis is being sued in the Irish courts because he was living at Westminster Road Foxrock, Co Dublin, at the time.
He denies the German company's allegations.
When the matter came before Mr Justice Morris yesterday Mr Oisin Quinn, counsel for Mr Lewis, said Mr Lewis would be unable to attend court for cross- examination which was fixed for tomorrow.
He said there had been two previous adjournments due to his client's ill-health. He had suffered from a heart condition. Mr Quinn said Mr Lewis's US lawyers had received a letter from a doctor in the Memphis Methodist Hospital which stated that under no circumstances should Mr Lewis undertake extensive travel over the next two months.
Mr McDonald read an affidavit by Mr Thomas Friedl, managing director of the German company, which stated that Mr Lewis's health must be excellent because he was able to travel to Europe to perform concerts in Denmark.
Mr Friedl also said he was exhibiting an Internet extract giving details of Mr Lewis's shows for 1997. The Internet extract showed details of a proposed concert in Jacksonville, Florida, next Friday. He believed this showed Mr Lewis was in excellent health.
Mr Justice Morris said what he was being shown was a printout stated to be from a computer linked to the Internet. This could have been done by anybody.
He said he was not prepared to accept a printout. The solution, as he saw it, was to give Mr McDonaId's clients an opportunity to adduce positive evidence of this concert taking place on Friday.
He adjourned the matter for a week.